Zuni
'' A horned dinosaur the size of a draft horse slowly walks up to you. She snorts, then nuzzles against your hand with her beak.'' Jura's companion Zuni is a Zuniceratops from the herd that Jura's family keeps. Despite her large size and imposing horns, she is friendly and unusually intelligent, and enjoys being scratched behind the horns and frills. In a dangerous situation, she will usually hang back and defend archers, casters, or any individual Jura has instructed her to protect. However, she will charge almost anything if goaded into an attack. Zuni likes to keep her feet on the ground and doesn't appreciate situations to the contrary, such as meandering through strange planes, having Kat trying to lift her with Sparkle Pony, being carried in a hammock by Dragonstorm Treeborn, or riding on a possessed wagon. Jura had a special harness made for her to make being carried more tolerable for Zuni, and Zuni submits to the harness when the alternative is being left behind in Willowdale, since only thing Zuni likes less than being physically unstabilized is being separated from Jura for any length of time. When Jura overslept following the party that started the Girls' Night Out and didn't come to find Zuni at sunrise, Zuni climbed two flights of stairs to wake her up, and became stuck. Zuni was likewise unimpressed when Jura reluctantly left Zuni alone in Willowdale, anticipating a dangerous trip to the desert. She spent some time wandering around Willowdale looking for Jura, and finally settled herself in front of the Boar & Thistle, where she complained to passers-by. Noemia, Leão, and Martha all tried to calm her down with verbal reassurance and green vegetables. Finally, someone mentioned that Jura was outside the Wall. At this point, Zuni moved to the gatehouse, where she remained until Jura returned later that afternoon. During several difficult outings since then, Jura has left Zuni in Willowdale with instructions to defend Noemia until she returned. This gambit has been successful in keeping Zuni too occupied with following Noemia around to fuss over Jura's absence. However, Zuni still becomes anxious if left for long periods of time. Besides Jura, Zuni appears to particularly like Martha, Noemia, Kat, and Gorgoroth. She is also oddly attentive to Rinzler. Jura thinks this is because in the early days in Willowdale, she often instructed Zuni to stick close to and defend the alchemist, and Zuni still thinks of him as "the small man that Jura wants me to protect." During the diplomatic expedition to Alsea, Zuni acted as Valconey's mount and bodyguard. His inexperience with directing an animal appears to have convinced Zuni that Valconey is a rather large child, similar to those who sometimes receive dinosaur rides from her in Willowdale. Zuni has always been more a friend or little sister than a pet to Jura, and as Zuni's intelligence grows this distinction has become more prominent. As such, Jura was quite upset when Zuni was killed by a Weird in the Witch Woods, despite knowing that her companion could easily be raised from the dead. When Zuni, unlike other individuals raised from the dead, had not even the vaguest memory of some sort of afterlife, Jura worried that this might mean her friend faces only oblivion after death. Titles *Planeswalker *Dead Zuni Walking Category:Companion Category:Mount